We’ve been a bit off kilter the first half of August, so our regular meal planning was put on the back burner for awhile. I had the opportunity to be a student at a jazz camp for an entire work week, coming home most nights after a day of learning, swinging, and singing. I tried to stock the house with a variety of food for the family, so it would be a bit easier on JSarr to have me away.
Then we went to a leader’s retreat for our church so we were away for another couple of nights. Both times were spiritually renewing for me. Is that weird for you to hear me say that a jazz camp would be spiritually renewing? Well, it was. Louise Rose, a performer (vocal and piano), observed that everything we do is worship, and we are always serving. Sounds like something I would hear at church, but that was at a jazz camp, yep! What we do through everyday life shows what is most important to us and what we worship. And what we do shows who we are serving. Are we serving ourselves, or others? She also noted to trust what you believe in, not what you fear. Music is a vessel. Aren’t those great thoughts to ponder? I digress. Back to food.
So I thought I’d shared some more updated pics of recipes since this is exactly what we’ve been making the first half of the month, and then I will share my future plans. For the last half of the month most of my future plans are based on what we have in the fridge and an urgency to use the blessings of harvest.
What We Have Made the 1st Part of August/Updated Pictures
(Food and meals are Bolded)
Homemade Red Robin-Inspired Seasoning
I left JSarr a crock-pot of refried beans, so they could make lots of chimichangas and bean burritos.
I also left them some Dairy-free Alfredo.
On the side they had some Crock-pot Corn on the Cob.
We came into some zucchini, so we have been grating it like crazy and having it in Healthified Zucchini Bread, Chocolate Yogurt Zucchini Bread, Roasted Vegetables, in spaghetti sauce and more.
Jonathan made up some Sun Tea.
And I made up a Banana Blueberry Bliss Smoothie.
I stocked Jonathan and the kids with 2 batches of 4 Ingredient Chewy Peanut Butter Granola Bars and one batch of 4 Ingredient Almond Butter Granola Bars so they wouldn’t run out of healthy on-the-go snacks for after swim or whatever for the kids. It’s nice now because we still have some granola bars left.
Hopefully to get us past the first day of school I made 2 batches of crock-pot granola.
2 Weeks of MEAL IDEAS
BREAKFAST IDEAS:
- Smoothies or Sorbets like a Pineapple Cucumber Smoothie, Ellie’s Lemon Lime Smoothie since I bought a bag of limes at Costco. That bag contains SO many limes, I’ve got to do something with them. I guess I should make some Limeade, too. I know the kids would love it.
- Sourdough Pancakes and Sourdough Waffles
- Steel Cut Oats with strawberries, blueberries, nuts, and honey-We haven’t had any steel cut oats all month with my crazy schedule, so I’ve been itching to make them again.
- Crock-pot Granola, and some boxed cereal.
LUNCH IDEAS:
- Tuna Lettuce Wraps
- Nacho Salad, can serve with No-cheese Cheese or Raw Milk Cheese, with Salsa (still my first go-to lunch if we don’t have leftovers) and sometimes guacamole.
- Scrambled Eggs with lots of Sauteed Veggies
- Chimichangas
- Fruit: bananas, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and other in season fruit
- Sourdough Baguettes with Bruschetta and ham
- Leftovers
DINNER IDEAS:
- I made my first homemade marinara sauce twice in the last week, and am making more today with the tomatoes with which we have been blessed. So I made a Crock-pot Lasagna with the sauce-The kids really enjoyed the leftovers since we made it for a potluck. I also want to make another batch of marinara sauce today.
- So the plan is to have spaghetti later this week, also.
- I also made my first homemade tomato soup and want to keep tweaking the recipe this week.
- Salad with Lemony Vinaigrette
- Homemade $0.61 Sourdough Bread-Abbie (age 6) has her sourdough waiting to be cooked now. She even made her own start!
- Low Carb Crock-pot Zucchini Parmesan Turkey Meatball-They smell so good in our crock-pot now. I made some without cheese for me. These with give us at least 2 dinners and some lunches this week.
- As a side the last couple of nights I have been roasting summer’s harvest of vegetables with whole garlic cloves, and onions. It is my favorite way to eat yellow squash, and the roasted veggies are great on pizza the next day!
- Zucchini Pizza with a Tomato Basil Sauce-We had a cul-de-sac pizza cook-off last week, and speaking of zucchini, my friend, Clhóe just made an AMAZING gluten-free, and dairy-free pizza using slices of zucchini as the base. I got the base of her recipe and am going to try to recreate something that matches the fabulous creation she made.
- Crock-pot Whole Chicken
- I want to try to make some kind of lettuce cups using some leftover shredded chicken.
- Salad with Pepperoni-Since we had the pizza cook-off, we had leftover pepperoni, so I chopped it up and we just had salads the next day for dinner. The salad was so good, I have to make it again! I have only had pepperoni at a local Italian restaurant, Cristiano’s, but for whatever reason never thought of invigorating a salad with them. We are ALWAYS looking for ways to make salads more interesting. I used this Caesar Dressing Recipe as a base for the cashews, but threw in Montreal Steak Seasoning to liven up the dressing even more. Wow! The dressing was also great as a dip for fresh veggies!
- Sweet Potato Fries-We have some sweet potatoes to use!
- Crock-pot Sweet and Sour Chicken from my 10 Crock-pot Freezer meals.
- Chicken Tacos from my 10 Crock-pot Freezer meals.
- Leftovers
SNACKS & DESSERT IDEAS:
- Dairy-Free Blender Ice Cream-Has it been hard for you to keep bananas from turning brown so soon? This is one of our solutions. We’ve also made a TON of banana popsicles.
- No Bake Cookie Bars, Dairy-Free
- Apples and Bananas with Nut Butter
- Stove Top Popcorn
- Homemade KIND Inspired Bars
- I am going to try my hand at some Zucchini Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies from 2 Peas and Their Pods with some dairy-free adaptions.
- I
also want to trymade an Egg-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake adapted from Posed Perfection and adapt it to be dairy-free, too.
- 4 Ingredient Chewy Peanut Butter Granola Bars and 4 Ingredient Almond Butter Granola Bars
- Crock-pot Yogurt with Easy 3 Ingredient No Cook Blender Jam-I have a batch in the crock-pot right now.
How are you using zucchini now? I’d love to hear! You can find my past menu plans here.
Go here for the complete list of recipes.
Wow, what a great menu!
I know what you mean about being spiritually renewed by something that seems like it’s not “about” religion–really, God is in everything, and we’re supposed to pray unceasingly, and the inspiration to do so can come from all sorts of directions.
My favorite zucchini recipe is Zucchini Tofu, which I’m sure would work with pre-cooked chicken if you don’t eat soy. There are links at the bottom of that post to two different zucchini recipe parties that might give you some more ideas! Zucchini is great in this pasta dish, too.
Hi Becca. Thanks for all of the inspiration! I’ll check it out!
Those look amazing. I don’t know which looks yummier! I make my own homemade tortillas for mexican night, but we are Smoothie fanatics here.
Hi Allyson. Homemade tortillas sound awesome! We love smoothies, too. They are such an easy way to get lots of fruits and veggies in your lifestyle!
Hi Sonja, At least you’ve been enjoying your time away and being renewed! All the things you left for dinner look delicious! Who can turn down anything Mexican? Not I! We all love chimichangas in our house! Yum!
Thanks, Serena! Mexican is my favorite. Maybe it’s because I am half-Mexican:)!